In light of Blackfish’s release, many have pushed for SeaWorld do something about its orcas. They can no longer remain at SeaWorld, performing, they say, when such abuse takes place. The problem is, what is to be done with a six ton killer whale unable to survive on its own? The orcas should remain at SeaWorld until their deaths because they cannot survive in the wild after years of captivity, and they should be kept from reproducing whether they perform or not. Do we need to do anything though? They are intelligent and amazing, but are not they just animals? Some have given too much credit to orcas’ intelligence, such as one of the scientists, Marino. In Blackfish, she states, “The orca brain screams out intelligence awareness. We took this tremendous brain and put it in a magnetic resonance scanner. What we found is just astounding.” They found enlarged areas in the brain that are associated with high emotional capacity.
SeaWorld, however, reports differently: “This is misleading. The most recent scientific research demonstrates that cetacean behaviors used to argue that high levels of intelligence are found commonly across mammals and vertebrates, and that cetacean intelligence is qualitatively no different than other vertebrates” (“Truth About Blackfish” …show more content…
They’re all emotionally destroyed. They’re all psychologically traumatized.” While this may well be true to some extent, they are animals. Most animals do not become psychologically traumatized without severe cruelty. If you treated, say, a dog like the orcas at SeaWorld are treated, it would most likely be fine. It is fed, it has some sort of community, it even has playtime. Will it be unstable because it spends its nights in close quarters with others dogs? Possibly, but for the most part, it would be fine. It may have some physical decline, but not much. For the most part, it would be